As an organisation, Viva is keen to ensure that our work is having a tangible impact on the organisations and churches we support, and on the children we seek to serve. We regularly monitor the progress of our work, evaluate its effectiveness and use findings to inform future strategy and organisational direction.

Network Health Check

Viva’s Network Health Check (NHC) was first introduced in 2009. It is the most recent manifestation of our primary network evaluation tool.  It follows in the footsteps of previous mechanisms such as the ‘Annual Network Development Evaluation’ (ANDE) – used from 1999 to 2002, or the ‘Annual Network Review’ (ANR) – used from 2003 to 2008.

At a network-level, NHC is designed to operate as a self-assessment tool that should, for greatest value-add, be completed in partnership with a Viva Network Consultant. Once data entry is complete, the comprehensive report of network health generated by NHC will prove an essential guide in the development of consultancy plans for the year ahead: highlighting weak points that need improvement or strengths to capitalise upon. At an International Level, the statistics derived from NHC allow Viva to identify patterns and trends across all of the networks, which should inform its Network Development and Programmatic strategies at an international level.

The NHC systematically investigates networks using two different perspectives: General Capacity i.e. the Network’s innate capacity to deliver the collaborations and services required of it; and Network Projects i.e. the collaborations instigated by groups of network participants and organised by the Network Coordination Team. This second perspective provides triangulation, allowing us to see whether the innate capacity of the network is reflected in its delivery of tangible programs.

All of the information is collected through a comprehensive on-line questionnaire, and is summarised in our NHC report 2021.

Monitoring and Evaluation (M+E) Framework 

We are evaluating Viva’s working model, our methods of evaluation, and the impact we are making in the cities where Viva networks are operating. The reason for this is to learn and to increase credibility. We want confirmation that what we are doing is effective in changing the situation for children. We seek to learn from the research and will implement changes based on the findings to ensure that we are having maximum impact on the city-wide situation of children.

One of the documents we have produced as part of the contextual background for this and to help us identify areas to track in the future, was our M+E Framework. This details Viva’s found drivers for lasting change, the benefits we expect to see at through each driver for network staff, participants and children; and how we plan to measure this.

To request a copy of M+E Framework, please call us on 01865 811660 or email info@viva.org